Power system module and method of fabricating the same

ABSTRACT

Provided are a power system module allowing a user&#39;s requirements to be easily met, and having economic practicality and high integration, and a manufacturing method thereof. The power system module includes a plastic case, a molding type power module package, a control circuit board, and at least one external terminal. The plastic case defines a bottom and a side wall. The molding type power module package is fixed to the bottom of the plastic case and includes at least a power device therein. The control circuit board is fixed to the side wall of the plastic case, includes at least a control device mounted thereon which is electrically connected to the power module package. The external terminal protrudes to outside the plastic case and is electrically connected to the control circuit board.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/696,801 filed Apr. 5, 2007, which claims the benefit of Korean PatentApplication No. 10-2006-0035770, filed on Apr. 20, 2006, in the KoreanIntellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporatedherein in its entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and moreparticularly, to a power system module including a power device and acontrol device, and a manufacturing method of the power system module.

2. Description of the Related Art

Conventional power system modules are manufactured with a power deviceintegrally packaged with a control device. Power devices includeMOSFETs, bipolar transistors, and insulated gate bipolar transistors(IGBT). Control devices have a wide variety of control circuitsdepending on the type of product. An example of a power system modulewith a power device and a control device stacked and molded on a singlelead frame is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,703,399 assigned toMitsubishi, which is hereby incorporated by reference.

However, this type of conventional power system module has the followingproblems.

First, it is difficult to provide a power system module according to acustomer's requirements. This is because the control circuitry differsaccording to the type of product, and the power system module for eachproduct is different. Accordingly, in order to meet a customer'srequirements, a different power system module must be provided for eachcase, which is problematic from a manufacturing point of view.

Also, conventional power system modules are costly because a controldevice must be added to an already expensive power module package. Acontrol device can take up considerable volume, which increases the costof the power system module and makes it difficult to employ complexcontrol circuitry.

Additionally, conventional power system modules are difficult to highlyintegrate because a power device and a control device are both containedin a single package, resulting in low integration.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a power system module capable of easilyfulfilling customers' specifications and being economically practical,and also capable of high integration.

The present invention also provides a manufacturing method of a powersystem module capable of easily fulfilling customers' specifications andbeing economically practical.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided apower system module including a plastic case within which a first regionand a second region are defined. A power module package of amolding-type may include at least a power device within, and be fixed tothe first region of the plastic case. A control circuit board may haveat least a control device mounted thereon, being fixed on the secondregion of the plastic case, and electrically connected to the powermodule package. At least one external terminal may be electricallyconnected to the control circuit board, and protrude to the outside ofthe plastic case.

The plastic case may include a fixing member within for fixing theexternal terminal to the control circuit board. Also, the controlcircuit board may have at least one first hole for the external terminalto pass through and fix to the fixing member.

The power module package may include at least one lead electricallyconnected to the power device, and the control circuit board may includeat least one second hole, through which the lead of the power modulepackage may pass through. Furthermore, the lead of the power modulepackage and the second hole of the control circuit board may beelectrically connected with conductive solder.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda manufacturing method of a power system module, including the followingoperations. A plastic case defining a first region and a second regionwithin is provided. A molding type power module package containing atleast one power device within is fixed to the first region of theplastic case. A control printed board with at least a control devicemounted thereon is fixed to the second region of the plastic case. Thecontrol circuit board is electrically connected to the power modulepackage. Also, in order for at least one external terminal to protrudeoutside of the plastic case, the external terminal is electricallyconnected to the control circuit board.

The electrical connecting of the external terminal may include passingthe external terminal through at least one first hole of the controlcircuit board and fixing the external terminal to a fixing member insidethe plastic case, and connecting the external terminal to the controlcircuit board using soldering.

The electrical connecting of the external terminal may includepositioning at least one lead of the power module package to passthrough at least one second hole of the control circuit board, andconnecting the lead of the power module package to the control circuitboard using solder.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features and advantages of the present inventionwill become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodimentsthereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a power system module according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the power system module illustrated in FIG.1;

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of the power system module illustrated inFIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the power system module illustratedin FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a control circuit board of the power systemmodule illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a plastic case of the power system module inFIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the plastic case illustrated in FIG.6; and

FIGS. 8 and 9 are cross-sectional views illustrating a manufacturingmethod of a power system module according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described more fully with reference tothe accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of theinvention are shown. The invention may, however, be embodied in manydifferent forms and should not be construed as being limited to theembodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will fully convey the concept of the invention tothose skilled in the art. In the drawings, the relative size of variouscomponents may be exaggerated for clarity.

A power system module according to embodiments of the present inventionmay denote a system including a module with a power device and a modulewith a control device. That is, a power device and a control device mayform the circuit of the power system. The power device may include apower MOSFET, a bipolar transistor, or an insulated gate bipolartransistor (IGBT), but is not limited to such inclusion.

FIGS. 1 through 4 illustrate a power system module 100 according to anembodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 through 4, a power system module uses a plasticcase 110 for integrating a power module package 120 and a controlcircuit board 130. For example, the power module package 120 and thecontrol circuit board 130 may be respectively fixed inside the plasticcase 110 and electrically connected to each other. At least one externalterminal 140 electrically connected to the control circuit board 130 maybe positioned to protrude out of the plastic case 110 (extend above theplastic case 110 in the drawings) in order to electrically connect anexternal device with the power system module.

A detailed description of each part of the power system module 100 willbe provided below.

The power module package 120 may include at least a power device (notshown) packaged therein. The power module package 120 may also include apassive device (not shown) along with the power device. The power modulepackage 120 may have a general molding type package structure. The powermodule package 120 may also have a case type package, as distinguishedfrom a molded type package, with a power device packaged therein.

For example, the power device in the power package module 120 is mountedon a package substrate, and may be molded using a molding material, forexample, an epoxy molding compound (EMC). In order to connect to anexternal device, at least one electrical terminal, such as a lead 126,is connected to the power device and is exposed to the outside throughthe molding material. For instance, the package substrate may include adirect bonded Cu (DBC) substrate or an insulated metal substrate (IMS).

Furthermore, the power module package 120 may further include a heatsink 122 that is exposed to the outside through the molding material.The heat sink 122 may function to dissipate heat from the power deviceto the outside. Moreover, the power module package 120 may furtherinclude a wall portion 124 extending vertically downward to the depth ofthe bottom edge of the heat sink 122. This wall portion 124 functions toassist in easily fixing the power module package 120 to the plastic case110.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a control circuit board of the power systemmodule illustrated in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 5, the control circuit board 130 has at least thecontrol device 136 mounted thereon. For example, the control circuitboard 130 may include an active device or a passive device 138 inaddition to the control device 136. The control circuit board 130 mayinclude at least one first hole 132 and at least one second hole 134.The first hole 132 may be for connecting the control circuit board 130to the power module package 120 (FIG. 4), and the second hole 134 may befor connecting the control circuit board 130 to the external terminal140 (FIG. 4). The numbers of first and second holes 132 and 134 are notlimited to those described in the current embodiment of the presentinvention.

For example, the control circuit board 130 may include predeterminedconductive traces printed on a substrate, in other words, a printedcircuit board (PCB). When a PCB is used, the control circuit board 130may be easily configured in various ways to meet a user'sspecifications. That is, the control circuit board 130 that is madeusing printed circuit technology can more easily and inexpensively bechanged for manufacturing purposes, compared to the molding type powermodule package 120 (FIG. 4).

FIG. 6 is a bottom plan view of a plastic case of the power systemmodule illustrated in FIG. 1, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view ofthe plastic case illustrated in FIG. 6.

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, the plastic case 110 includes the sidewall112 and a floor 114. The sidewall 112 is formed to extend verticallyupward from the upper surface of the edge around the entire floor 114.The floor 114 includes a through hole 115 formed therethrough, and thesidewall 112 includes a groove 113. The groove 113 may be formed inoppositely facing surfaces of the sidewall 112 or may be formed in theentire perimeter of the sidewall 112. The plastic case 110 may includepolybutyleneterephtalate (PBT), polyphenynesulfide (PPS), orpolypthalamide (PPA).

The plastic case 110 may further include a fixing member 116 within forfixing the external terminal 140 (FIG. 4). The fixing member 116 may befixed vertically to the floor 114 by, for example, also forming thefixing member 116 when the plastic case 110 is formed. Also, the plasticcase 110 may further include a pair of auxiliary through holes 117 foraiding in fixing the power module package 120 (FIG. 4) along with thethrough hole 115. The plastic case 110 is not limited to the formillustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7, and may adopt a variety of forms that fallwithin the scope of the present invention.

Referring again to FIGS. 1 through 4, the power module package 120 isfixed to a first region (i.e., the floor 114) inside the plastic case110, and the control circuit board 130 is fixed to a second region(i.e., the sidewall 112) inside the plastic case 110. The power modulepackage 120 may be formed so that the heat sink 122 is exposed throughthe through hole 115 (in FIG. 7) of the floor 114. In this case, thewall portion 124 passes and is exposed through the auxiliary throughhole 117 (in FIG. 7) so that the power module package 120 can be morereliably fixed to the plastic case 110.

The control circuit board 130 may be inserted into the groove 113 (inFIG. 7) of the sidewall 114. However, the control circuit board 130according to another embodiment of the present invention may be attachedto the plastic case 110 using another method. For example, a fixingplate (not shown) may be attached to the sidewall 114, and the controlcircuit board 130 may be supported on the fixing plate. That is, thefixing of the control circuit board 130 may be fixed through variousmeans according to the shape of the plastic case 110.

At least one lead 126 of the power module package 120 is electricallyconnected to the control circuit board 130. The lead 126 of the powermodule package 120 may be disposed to pass through the first hole 132(FIG. 5) of the control circuit board 130 and electrically connected tothe control circuit board 130 using conductive solder (not shown).However, in an alternative embodiment according to the presentinvention, the lead 126 of the power module package 120 may be connectedto the control circuit board 130 by alternative means. For example, thelead 126 of the power module package 120 may simply contact the controlcircuit board 130 fixed to the control circuit board using conductivesolder to electrically connect the two parts at the same time.

Thus, the connecting of the lead 126 of the power module package 120 andthe control circuit board 130 may be controlled, and the power modulepackage 120 and the control circuit board 130 may be formed in a desiredcircuit configuration according to a desired power system.

The external terminal 140 is disposed to pass through the second hole134 (FIG. 5) of the control circuit board 130 and is electricallyconnected to the control circuit board 130 by conductive solder.Accordingly, the external terminal 140 may be further fixed to thefixing member 116 of the plastic case 110 below the control circuitboard 130. The external terminal 140, for example, may be fixed to theplastic case 110 through a screw coupling inside the fixing member 116.

In one embodiment of the current invention, although the externalterminal 140 is directly connected to the control circuit board 130, dueto the fact that the control circuit board 130 is connected to the powermodule package 120, the external terminal 140 can function as an outputterminal for the entire system circuit of the power module package 120and the control circuit board 130. That is, the external terminal 140performs the function of electrically connecting the power system moduleto an external device. Therefore, the number and position of theexternal terminal 140 may be adjusted according to the function of thepower system module.

In another embodiment according to the present invention, the inside ofthe plastic case 110 may be filled with an insulating material whichencloses the control circuit board 130.

In the above structure, the power module package 120 and the controlcircuit board 130 may be manufactured separately, and then fixed in astacked format in the plastic case 110. That is, the power modulepackage 120 and the control circuit board 130 may be providedseparately. Accordingly, a control circuit board 130 may be added to apower module package 120 according to a customer's requirements, inorder to easily manufacture another power system module.

In addition, because the power module package 120 and the controlcircuit board 130 can be manufactured separately, the volume of thepower module package 120 (having a relatively high manufacturing cost)can be reduced, thereby also reducing its manufacturing cost.Furthermore, because the power module package 120 and the controlcircuit board 130 can be stacked within a plastic case 110, the circuitintegration of both the power module package 120 and the control circuitboard 130 can be increased, to obtain high integration of the powersystem module. Thus, the power system module according to embodiments ofthe present invention may be applied to products requiring highlyintegrated circuits, for example, automobiles.

A manufacturing method of the above-described power system module willbe set forth below. FIGS. 8 and 9 are cross-sectional views illustratingan manufacturing method of a power system module according to anembodiment of the present invention.

First, referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, a plastic case 110 defining a firstregion (for example, the floor 114) and a second region (for example,the sidewall 112) is provided. A detailed description of the plasticcase 110 has already been given and is thus omitted below.

Referring to FIG. 8, a power module package 120 is fixed to the floor114 of the plastic case 110. For example, in order to expose the heatsink 122 through the through hole 115 of the floor 114, the power modulepackage 120 is first placed on the floor 114, and is fixed to the floor114 using an adhesive printing or dotting method. At least one lead 126of the power module package 120 is disposed vertically upward from thefloor 114. Furthermore, in order to strengthen the fixing of the powermodule package 120, a curing operation may be further implemented.

Referring to FIG. 9, the control circuit board 130 is fixed to thesidewall 112 of the plastic case 110. For instance, the control circuitboard 130 may be fixed to the plastic case 110 by inserting the edges ofthe control circuit board 130 in the groove 113 (in FIG. 7) of thesidewall 112. However, in other embodiments of the present invention,the control circuit board 130 may be fixed using alternative methods.For example, a fixing or support plate may be placed on the sidewall112, and the control circuit board 130 may be installed on the fixingplate.

Before, after, or during the fixing of the control circuit board 130,the lead 126 of the power module package 120 is electrically connectedto the control circuit board 130. For example, the lead 126 of the powermodule package 120 may be positioned to pass through the first hole 132(FIG. 5) of the control circuit board 130 and may be electricallyconnected to the control circuit board 130 using soldering.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, however, the leads126 of the power module package 120 may be connected to the controlcircuit board 130 using alternative methods. For example, the leads 126may be first placed in contact with the control circuit board 130 andthen electrically connected and fixed to the control circuit board 130using soldering.

Before, after, or during the fixing of the control circuit board 130, atleast one external terminal 140 is electrically connected to the controlcircuit board 130. For example, an external terminal 140 is positionedto pass through a second hole 134 (in FIG. 5) of the control circuitboard 140 and is electrically connected to the control circuit board 130using soldering.

In addition, the external terminal 140 may be mechanically fixed to theplastic case 110. For example, the external terminal 140 may be screwedand coupled to a fixing member 116 at the bottom of the control circuitboard 130, in order to fix the external terminal 140 to the plastic case110.

The above-described manufacturing method, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention, allows the power module package 120 and thecontrol circuit board 130 to be separately manufactured, in order toeasily satisfy customers' demands. Moreover, this method of separatelymanufacturing the components can increase circuit integration of thepower system module. Also, the power module package 120 (having arelatively expensive manufacturing cost) does not require a built-incontrol device, so that manufacturing costs can be lowered in theabove-described manufacturing method.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understoodby those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form anddetails may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention as defined by the following claims.

1. A power system module comprising: a plastic case having a firstregion and a second region; a molded power module package fixed in thefirst region of the plastic case, the molded power module packageincluding at least a power device and at least one lead electricallyconnected to the power device; a control circuit board fixed in thesecond region of the plastic case, the control circuit board includingat least one first hole, at least one second hole, and at least acontrol device mounted thereon; and at least one external terminalprotruding outside the plastic case, the external terminal passingthrough the first hole, wherein the lead is positioned to pass throughthe second hole.
 2. The power system module of claim 1, wherein theplastic case comprises a fixing member outside the molded power modulepackage, and wherein the external terminal is fixed to the fixingmember.
 3. The power system module of claim 2, wherein the externalterminal is fixed to the plastic case through a coupling inside thefixing member.
 4. The power system module of claim 1, wherein the secondhole is positioned between the first hole and a center of the controlcircuit board.
 5. The power system module of claim 1, wherein the leadis positioned within the plastic case.
 6. The power system module ofclaim 1, wherein a height of the external terminal is greater than aheight of the lead.
 7. The power system module of claim 1, wherein thelead and the external terminal are electrically connected to the controlcircuit board by conductive solder.
 8. The power system module of claim1, wherein the plastic case comprises a floor and a sidewall, where thefirst region is defined by the floor and the second region is defined bythe sidewall.
 9. The power system module of claim 8, wherein the floorof the plastic case comprises a through hole exposing at least a portionof the first region to the outside.
 10. The power system module of claim9, wherein the power module package further comprises a heat sinkpassing through the through hole of the plastic case and being exposedto the outside.
 11. The power system module of claim 8, wherein thesidewall of the plastic case comprises a groove into which the controlcircuit board is fixed.
 12. The power system module of claim 1, whereinthe power module package further comprises a passive device, and thecontrol circuit board further comprises another active device or apassive device mounted thereon.
 13. A power system module comprising: aplastic case having a first and second region; a molded power modulepackage fixed in the first region of the plastic case, the molded powermodule package including at least a power device and at least one leadelectrically connected to the power device; a control circuit boardfixed in the second region of the plastic case, the control circuitboard including at least one first hole, at least one second hole, andat least a control device mounted thereon; and at least one externalterminal protruding outside the plastic case, the external terminalpassing through the first hole, wherein the lead is positioned to passthrough the second hole, wherein the second hole is positioned betweenthe first hole and a center of the control circuit board.
 14. A powersystem module comprising: a plastic case having a first region and asecond region; a molded power module package fixed in the first regionof the plastic case, the molded power module package including at leasta power device and at least one lead electrically connected to the powerdevice; a control circuit board fixed in the second region of theplastic case, the control circuit board including at least one firsthole, at least one second hole, and at least a control device mountedthereon; and at least one external terminal protruding outside theplastic case, the external terminal passing through the first hole,wherein the lead is positioned to pass through the second hole, whereinan upper portion of the external terminal is at a height greater than anupper portion of the lead.